Anyone else use the old Thompson Center Maxi Ball system bullets for hunting?

[R Ellis]

Something must have changed as TC originally marketed the Max-Ball as having it’s initial or lower bands under bore size (easy to load) and the top band over bore size so as to engage the rifling, very similar to Lee REAL concept. Below is the blurb from a 1980 TC catalog. Wonder when they started making the bottom ring larger? I have yet to see any of those.

As far expansion, yep, the Maxi-Ball tends to pencil though most game with little if any expansion unless none is hit. That’s why they came out with the Maxi-Hunter. Doesn’t mean either one doesn’t take game.

Your wright I am old and confused it has been a hard day and my brain was in reverse

 

[chorizo]

I am in the process of finding the most accurate hunting bullet for my 1:38 twist 58 cal carbine

In the line up are 580 grain Maxi-ball, 560 grain Maxi-hunter, 440 grain REAL as well as some oversized minie ball 500 grain.

I wish I could get my hands on some more maxi-hunters. They would seem to me to be the ideal weight and expansion type for elk if I can't push the 500 grain minies fast enough and get good accuracy.

@Military Collector Maplewood bullets has 50 cal 325 grain maxi-hunters on sale on GB under muzzleloading bullets for a great price for 50. You might want to take a look at that. I just picked up 200 for $120 shipped

Be sure to use a softer lube on the maxis. With the deep lube grooves, harder lube doesn't shed as easily and sheds unevenly and it affects accuracy. This I was told (and read on another site by someone who was doing accuracy testing).

 

[30338]

I shot through a few elk with the 370 maxiballs. They penetrate till tomorrow and disrupted enough stuff to kill well. Kicking mothers though and actually prefer larger roundballs these days.

 

[ETipp]

I have been getting back into shooting TC Hawkens with my father and recently picked up a couple of NOS TC Maxi Ball molds in 45 and 50 cal for casting my own bullets for future hunts. Does anyone else use these bullets and any special advise on use or load and fire away like normal?

At the expense of not reading all the replies in this thread, as I most always do before replying, I would like to add this. Between myself and my late dad, we both have shot TC Hawken's and Renegades that fired TC Maxi Balls for many years now. We have taken many critters with them. I personally have taken Elk with them, as well as many deer. We hand casted those Maxi Balls and find very acceptable accuracy from them. In both the .50 Hawken that my dad used to own, and my one .50 Renegade, as well as my .50 New Englander, we always used 80 grains of 3F black powder. The other Renegade I had, a .54, was a RB shooter.

Field performance of the .50 caliber Maxi Ball........... out of quite a few big game critters I have killed with them, not one has made it more than a few steps. At most a couple may have made it 15 yards or so. If no bone is struck, the Maxi Balls makes a .50 caliber hole coming and going. If heavy bone is struck, it takes out a large chunk. Either way, I have only been able to find two Maxi Balls and one of those was dug out of the far side of an elk that I estimated to be 150 yards at a minimum. The other one I found in the hind quarter of a deer that the Maxi hit and went through a downed oak limb that was about 3-4" in diameter and then into the hind quarter. I was able to finish off the deer shortly after. Do not let anyone fool you. Maxi Balls penetrate very, very well.

Longer distances............. I have found that at 100 yards the .50 Maxi Balls drops about 8-9 inches or so. Not a big deal really, just use some Kentucky windage and hold high on longer shots.

IMO, Maxi balls are so effective out to 150 yards that I was considering selling my .50 TC and going solely with my .54 GPR and using RB as my primary big game rifle, but I am having second thoughts on that one. Even though the Maxi Balls do not expand, for ways and reasons that I cannot explain, there is something about them that flat puts a big game critter down. From stock rifles, Maxi Balls have proven to this old boy that they are about as good as it gets.

 

[brushblind]

They're OK in my opinion but the maxi hunter is far better and more consistent when shooting at targets out of my .50 TC's. When hunting I use patched RB so I don't know how they perform in game, I know they have a rainbow trajectory with 75grns. of 2F and have much more recoil than RB's.

 

[Reds]

I have used Maxi-balls since 1980 and have never had an issue with accuracy or harvesting deer and elk. I handcast all I use .32 .50 and .54 using pure lead and TC Moulds. Years ago I tried the Maxi-Hunters in .54 but just didn’t pattern as tight as the Maxi-Balls. Using TC Natural Lube and a bore button between powder and projectile. Guns are White Mountain Carbine .50cal. Renegade .54cal Hawkens .54cal. The .32 is a Cherokee. Thompson also made a kit that cut the nose of the Maxi-Balls for added expansion but I never tried using it. They are sometimes on eBay. Hope this helps!

 

[Reds]

The kit is called Maxi Shock Kit#7126. It has 6 different tips you screw on your ramrod that cut patterns in the nose of your Maxi!!!

 

[SDSmlf]

The kit is called Maxi Shock Kit#7126. It has 6 different tips you screw on your ramrod that cut patterns in the nose of your Maxi!!!

They actually had four caliber adapters and four tips to cut the bullet nose. Received the ones I have as gifts from nieces and nephews.

 

[Reds]

That’s it!!! Have you tried it?

 

[Sidney Smith]

Its made with the bottom ring a little over size to engage the rifling . So the hard start. As for the people talking about expansion I don't get it because it is already as large as most unmentionable bullets after they expand. I have and use them in 45- 50 and 54

Wrong. The top bearing band is slightly larger, which helps seal the maxi in the bore and to grab the rifling better upon firing. My grandson still uses maxis in his flintlock. They're very accurate and pack a wallop on deer. Nothing at all wrong with them.

 

[Capt. Kirk]

Mine drop from my Lyman mold at 362 grains, and over 90 grains of Swiss 1.5 Fg they average 1350 from my High Plains Sporter. I'm still testing, but they'll probably be my preferred load.

 

[R Ellis]

Wrong. The top bearing band is slightly larger, which helps seal the maxi in the bore and to grab the rifling better upon firing. My grandson still uses maxis in his flintlock. They're very accurate and pack a wallop on deer. Nothing at all wrong with them.

I already admitted my brain was in reverse on a previous post go back and read entire post

 

[SDSmlf]

That’s it!!! Have you tried it?

Tried it. Personally wasn’t impressed with this do-dad, though I received a couple of PMs with offers to purchase. Holding the ones I have for now. They were gifts from nieces and nephews.

 

[mtfishn]

My first BP game was taken with a Cabelas Plains Rifle kit gun in .54 cal. Not knowing better, I was shooting about 145gr/FFg under the 400gr Maxi. It shot about 8" groups at 100yds but I killed a cow elk at 60yds. That bullet entered near the last rib, angled forward and lodged under the hide of her neck...over 40" penetration and was less than a 1/4" thick and over 3/4" across....great expansion (pure lead). I have other guns that shoot better so I use them now. Certainly no fault on performance of Maxis.